Author Archives: escapethereview

Xscape Now: Houdini’s Mystereum

Telford, Jun 2019

Few names are as closely associated with escaping as Houdini’s, and Mystereum is set in a museum dedicated to the performer. A mysterious stranger has invited you in and left you trapped – a thin but adequate excuse for a room of escapology-inspired … (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Sanctum

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

The premise for Sanctum sounded quite a lot like a horror theme, and an original idea for one at that: an empty room in Clockwork Escapes’s building has watched its neighbouring rooms hosting teams of escape room players, growing jealous over the yea… (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Starpoint Alpha

Wolverhampton, May 2019

I’d heard intriguing though slightly contradictory things about Starpoint Alpha, and it was very high on my list of games to try on a West Midlands trip. Set on a space station, you naturally have an hour to get the station back under control before … (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Where There’s A Will

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

There aren’t a lot of escape rooms that go to the trouble of portraying an outside. The ones that do always seem to find a way to have fun with it.

Where There’s a Will is set in twilight. The game has some fun props, and some fun spaces both inside… (more)

Chase The Escape: Raid The S.T.A.G.G.

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

Chase The Escape are an independent company operating out of the same physical location as Clockwork Escapes, filling a space previously occupied by another company, Room Release. This sort of venue sharing seems such a sensible arrangement I’m amaze… (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Alleyway

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

Alleyway had so many elements that I’d have expected to put me off it. A dirty, dusty environment, a fairly narrow space in which we squeezed past each other in the darkness with not enough torches to go round, with a design that was happy to use got… (more)

Adventure Vault: The Scandal

Shrewsbury, Jun 2019

After playing the medieval-style The Beginning at Adventure Vault, we went straight on to their other game, The Scandal. This has no connection to the other in plot, theme or style: the noir setting seemed set somewhere in the 20th Century, and you a… (more)

Adventure Vault: The Beginning

Shrewsbury, Jun 2019

You wouldn’t guess it from the gnomic title, but The Beginning is set in a medieval/fantasy world which is threatened by cultists who aim to use a dark ritual to unleash a plague. Your task is to stop th- no, actually you are the cultists and … (more)

Argyx Games: Apocalypse: Sign of the Cross

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

Last year I reviewed a taster mini-game produced by Argyx and was impressed enough to sign up as a backer in the crowdfunding campaign for their full game, Apocalypse. That taster stood out for the quality and realism of its components, for making pl… (more)

Cliffhanger Rooms: Haunted Pirate Ship

Backbarrow, May 2019

The haunted pirate ship is a lovely, well themed room. It has a little of everything you’d expect from the ghost of a pirate captain… rum, maps, flags, mice and puzzles.

The puzzles were fun, and the game let us start on a few different things at … (more)